MechTech

That looks great! I'll never look at my Tamiya paints the same way aagin! Do you know the difference between Milliput and Aves Apoxie in hardness? Milliput is great, but way more denser than styrene. Sanding can be a little touch and go. - MT

UPDATE 7 AUG 06 I finished building and installing the stabilizers: Here's the stabilizer folded in flush. Here's the stabilizer deployed (note area behind fin is flush). Port Bow Stabilizer Deployed. Port Stabilizers deployed for size comparrison. Here's the P38 (Bohndo) on the bow, I still have to sand it down. (waitn' for the stink to go down - note it's hangin' outside)! The biggest sub-assembly yet has to be modifying the motors. They are 5mm shafts with 5mm thread out of the box. My problem is that most props on the market are 4mm. So I built a rig and filed the shafts down and rethread them. While I had them open, I punched out the rear bushing and bored it out and put a ball bearing in there. The front already came with a bearing on them. These are 700+ sized motors so they had plenty of power to turn them down a couple of sizes. Here's the rig I made to file/machine down the shaft diameters. Cutting 4mm threads into the shaft. (Blurred photo)Completed threads. The motors were old surplus so the armature had a light coat of rust. I sanded them down and recoated with enamel. These 5 pole motors have so much torque, they make the whole rig jump up when I was started them up to machine down. Here's the end bells with ball bearings fit into place. I'm now working on the shaft seals to go over the motor shafts. The motors will be in pods, not conventionally mounted. This way they can swivel and give better manueverability. Plus I'll have more room inside for stuff. I had to make four sets of each of these. I soldered them and have to do some fine machining later. It's late here and I'm off to bed! - MT

Looks great. I wouldn't think a Valk to look that good in black! - MT

You stumped me. There was a lot of the later releases in the "Robotech" line. I was really surprised walking into some stores and seeing them. I didn't really care much about the boxart. It's all about the model baby. Remember those dumb "Gobot" models that were really Mospeada kits? I was far from good anime shops for a while, so it was great to just walk into a Toys R Us and get anime models - for a good price! - MT

Yeah they're dry. In fact they are harvesting all around us - stupid alergies! - MT

Great coloration. Hopefully your wife will see what you did and not be so upset about airbrushing now! - MT

Way better than stock! - MT

That's cool man. I miss my rocketeering days. I couldn't fly around here. I'd like set some guy's field of grain on fire! - MT

Can you say U.N. (as in U.N. Spacey). All of the U.N.'s equipment averages about 20 years old. It's hand me down's from various countries (mostly U.S. gear). Actually, what was the most modern airframe design back in the 80's? That's waht Kawamori most likely went by. As I undrstand it, he was a big F-14 fan too. - MT

I'm along the thoughts that the artists had "four martini lunches." That's why the varied missile numbers! Actually the other sketch versions of the heads are in the Macross Hobby Handbook towards the back. I'd scan them, but they might come out funny since they are blue on yellow backrounds. PM me if you want them. - MT

I've heard of everclear being used for lot's of stuff, but this takes the cake! At least your liver will thank you ! Good thinkin'!- MT

Thanks for the updates. After reading all this, I've got a Chunky Monkey Ostrich that's yellowed like a smoker's fingernails I'm thinking of cleaning up and customizing. - MT

That looks awesome! Altogether a great build! - MT

Good looking "Chunky Monkey." Too bad they didn't look like that from the factory! - MT

I don't check out the toy section much, but when I saw the thread, I thought I'd check it out. If any of the toy manufacturers out there are smart, they'd make one. It all started with the SDF. Time for the toymakers to go back to our roots! - - MT

Hey Valk, that's tow-riffic! (sorry, couldn't resist). Those are coming together nicely. - MT

Alright Shawn and Graham, looks like we need a cosplay section now. - MT

Dave, I read that too somewhere. I also forgot about plastic gems. You go buy a cheap bag of plastic gems (multicolored) that are chromed on the back and file/sand them to shape and you're done. I also remember that somebody makes clear pearlescent that simulates the non-reflective glass on tanks and laser optics, can't remember who. If you can't take the head apart and your commited to redoing the eye piece, drill it our CAREFULLY and pick the rest out with a hook tool of some kind. Just a crazy idea. - MT

It is possible to do the whole transforming and joining thang. I was just dying to do it for months! I started to build my own version and yes, it's possible! The excuses are over! Maybe we need to send somebody a petition or somehing? You can't fight city hall, but you can take on license holders!

I don't think the directions say to do that. Unless of course there's a coat of superglue underneath it first. You guys are makin' me jealous. The kit looks great. I could feed my family or buy a monster...Hmmmmm Oh wait, the thought of my wife kick'n my butt just brought me back to reality.

Don't worry, we know what you mean.

I dig those high heels. I think I saw a pair of those back in the 70's! She looks great!

I've found a couple of methods that work for the "eye piece." If you have clear material, use bright silver/chrome on the backside (mirrored plastic is best if you have some or get a piece of an old toy). I usually use a Tamiya Chrome paint marker. On the front side, use a clear green paint, like Tamiya X-25. This will give you depth and an almost internally lit appearance. Just make sure you use white glue or other non-solvent based glue. If you want to represent cameras like you see on the VF-1D anime closeups, you can drill shallow holes that don't penetrate all the way through. Then chrome coat and clear coat the outside. That will give you an excellent 3D effect. If you can cut your own from a thicker piece of plastic, you will get more depth. A coat of Future will protect the whole thing. You can also get clear colored plastic off a drink bottle. then coat the back of it. It's harder to do, but you can coat the back side with a chromed coating like from a sticker or other material too. I had some great results on a VF-1S and J using the first method. Hope that helps. - MT

I love Hasegawa, but I'm already married! I build 1/200, but I'm gettin' one o' these babies! Who wants to make the resin accessories to show it opened up showing all it's armament?

You know it BigF. Man, that storm Saturday ripped the gate to our rear garden off the hinges! It also ripped the rear fence in half! At least it was cool though, great trade off! - MT